oning of some Aborigines at a sheep station in the north of this
district. A report of the kind certainly exists among the two tribes I
fell in with, namely, the Dallambarah and Coccombraral tribes, but as
neither of them were present at the time, they could give me no
circumstantial information whatever on the subject. The Giggabarah
tribe, the one said to have suffered, I was unable to meet with.
Upon inquiry at the stations to the north, I could learn nothing
further than that they had been using arsenic very extensively for
the cure of the scab, in which operation sheep are occasionally
destroyed by some of the fluid getting down their throats; and as the
men employed frequently neglect to bury the carcases, it is very possible
that the Aborigines may have devoured them, particularly the entrails,
which they are very fond of, and that hence some accident of the kind
alluded to may have occurred without their knowledge.

"I have, etc.
"(signed) S. SIMPSON,
"Commissioner of Crown Lands."

"The Honourable E. D. Thomson,
"Colonial Secretary."

For the sake of humanity I would hope that such unheard of atrocities
cannot really have existed. That the bare suspicion even of such crimes
should have originated and gained currency in more than one district
of Australia, is of itself a fearful indication of the feeling
among the lowest classes in the colonies, and of the harrowing
deeds to which that might lead.

Extract from South Australian Register, 10th of July, 1841, after the
return of Major O'Halloran and a party of sixty-eight individuals, sent
up the Murray to try and rescue property stolen by blacks. "In the mean
time we cannot but think that the DISAPPOINTMENT SO GENERALLY
EXPRESSED, because Major O'Halloran has returned 'WITHOUT FIRING A SHOT,'
is somewhat unreasonable, seeing that in his presence the natives DID
NOTHING TO WARRANT AN EXTREME MEASURE, and that there were no means of
identifying either the robbers of Mr. Inman, or the murderers of Mr.
Langhorne's servants. It is quite clear that a legally authorised English
force could not be permitted to fire indiscriminately upon the natives AS
SOME PERSONS THINK they ought to have done, or to fire at all, save when
attacked, or under circumstances in which any white subject of the Queen
might be shot at. We KNOW that many overland parties HAVE NOT HESITATED
TO FIRE AT THE NATIVES WHEREVER THEY APPEARED; and it is possible that
the tribes now hostilely dis